Live at Wolf & Rissmiller's Country Club, November 9, 1984 [only with bonus DVD]

301

I'm Alive

302

The Black Machine

303

Master of the Pit

304

King of the Dead!

305

Death of the Sun

306

Finger of Scorn

307

Frost & Fire

308

Cirith Ungol

Credits

Produced by: Robert Garven & Greg Lindstrom

Executive Producers: Randall L. Jackson & Matt Thomas

Mastered By: Brad Vance

Photography: Greg Hazard

Graphic Design: Thomas Ewerhard

Road Manager: Kevin "Dr" Sage

"This album is dedicated to our fallen comrade Jerry Fogle. Rest in Peace."

Editions

2CD: 2001 UK (Metal Blade Records; 3984-14383-2)

3LP: (Archaic Temple Prod.) [planned, not released]

2CD/DVD 2011 (Metal Blade Records; ) [digipak]

3LP 2011 (Metal Blade Records; ) [black vinyl]

3LP 2011 (Metal Blade Records; ) [golden brown vinyl, ltd.x300]

3LP 2011 (Metal Blade Records; ) [flame vinyl, ltd.x300]

This is an compilation album of 31 unreleased and rare tracks recorded between 1978 and 1990. It was only released in Europe, not in America. Artwork and layout was done by Michael Ewerhard who also has done some covers for Steel Prophet, among others. It is a great addition if you already have their four ordinary studioalbums, even though the soundquality is not always top-notch. It is my no means a complete compilation of their unreleased stuff, but a good introduction to it. Hopefully there will be a follow-up or a box set of more unreleased songs some day. The booklet is nice with pictures and linernotes by Rob and Greg. It is already out-of-print, and often over-priced, so get it while you can!

In the band's own words

Fans had been asking for years about unreleased live and studio songs,
so a few years ago Rob and I got to talking about the stacks of
unreleased songs we had laying around, and we decided that at least
some of it was good enough to be released. Overall, I’m very satisfied
with the finished product. The sound quality isn’t always the greatest,
but Brad Vance at DNA did a great job of saving and cleaning up our old
tapes, some of which were 25 years old. The fan reaction has been
great, and everyone seems to have a different favorite song. We keep
getting asked when Volume 2 will come out, and there is still some more
material we haven't unearthed yet.

-Greg Lindstrom, BallBuster interview

Rob came up with the idea and Metal Blade Europe was very receptive, so we both spent weeks going through our respective stacks of tapes. What ended up on the CD is a small fraction of what we have on tape.

-Greg Lindstrom, Tombstone interview 9/2001

There had been a lot of requests from our fans for some new CU material, so Rob and I spent a couple of months going through our old demo and practice tapes. Rob pitched the idea to Metal Blade, and the European side was very interested. Unfortunately, MB in the US did not release it, so the CD is rather hard to find over here in our own backyard! We would like to get a US label to release “Servants” over here.

If “Servants” generates enough interest, you could hear from us again. We still have at least 20 songs that have never been released, like “Brutish Manchild” and “Route 666”. I would like to resurrect some more old tapes that have Jerry’s guitar magic.

-Greg Lindstrom, True Metal magazine 07/02interview

Greg and I were actually the two original members so it was only natural that I turn to him to help work on the project. The other remaining members either did not want to participate or were totally against the project thinking that the music was inferior to our studio work. I was just interested in getting the music released before it was destroyed by time as so much of the other material was. Since our other albums had been released I thought that this was the best possible time and I knew that our good fans would enjoy hearing some of the early and live versions of some of the songs.

-Robert Garven, True Metal magazine 07/02interview

The only money we got to release Servants of Chaos went to
the mastering lab, the few hundred dollars we had left over Greg and I
agreed to send to Michael Whelan. In fact Greg and I spent some of our
own money to get the project out and as soon as we signed the contract
with Metal Blade it had a hidden clause in it that combined all the
other re-release royalties guaranteeing that we would never make a cent
on the deal. On a lighter note royalties that were made on Servants of Chaos
were supposed to be deducted from the monies owed on the re-releases
but never were. I contacted Metal Blade and Brian said he would look
into it. I never heard back from them. People asked me if I was upset
that bootleg albums existed of some of our material. My reply has been
that since we have never made any money from our legitimate record
companies why should we be upset at someone who would promote our music
by releasing a bootleg?

-Robert Garven, Diabolical Conquest interview

Metal Blade in Germany however, is run by a very cool guy, Michel
Trengert. He has been a good friend to the band. We have never made
much money from either group, but he was the guy that suggested that we
put out our “Servants of Chaos” CD, which contained all our
old and unreleased material, without him it never would have happened.
Brian our old friend did not release it in America
for whatever reason.

He [Trengert] suggested the idea to me and Greg
and I got all the material together that we could find in hopes of
releasing allot of stuff that no one had heard before. There are some real
gems in there, including some great instrumental work by Greg, and a
version of “Fallen Idols” that showed what the album “Paradise Lost” would
have sounded like if we would not have had a producer destroy the musical
compositions and arrangements. All in all, I was very happy with it, even
though Metal Blade saw fit not to release it in the US. Tim was opposed to
it, as he thought there was going to be some questionable material on there,
but since the tapes were deteriorating, it was then or never. I decided
that since the tapes were legally either Greg’s or mine that I was going
to go for it for our fans. Unfortunately, it seemed to have cost our
friendship.

-Robert Garven, Sleazegrinder interview

This album has been re-released in 2011, ten years after it's original release. It was re-released on both CD and 3LP gatefold vinyl. The CD was a digipak featuring a bonus DVD. On vinyl, it came in three different colours and with a A2 poster. It also has a slightly different cover - the title is written at the bottom.

I
loved this song, it made me feel like a caveman. At the beginning bars I
envisioned Roman troop's feet marching by the thousands! I really got
into the drums on this song, many time I would play so hard I would
break my cymbals and my hands would bleed all over my drums until they
were splattered in blood!

-Robert
Garven, linernotes

We
really did not do too much stage show stuff until near the last
half of
the band's life. We were pretty
heavy from the start and even when we went
out and played we blew most other bands away. Somewhere I got a
catalog
that had some pyro-stuff in it and I had some really cool things
on my
cymbal that shot balls of fire into the air, sometimes up to 25
feet. It
was very cool. By the way, we never killed anyone. We also had a
coffin
made and the roadies would carry Tim out in it and tilt it up and
open it
and Tim would come out in a crown singing “King of the Dead”!
There is a small pic of that on the new tribute CD that just came
out in
Europe.

-Robert Garven,
Sleazegrinder interview

A live videoclip from the song can be seen here. The
video was unleashed by bassist Vern Green. It was filmed at the Ventura Theater Dec 1991, which was their last show.

(Sept 79) My favorite song that never got recorded in a real studio. We recorded several versions - this one has the most synthesizers! All the songs on this CD were recorded in our 10 x 14 practice room in Rob's parents' house on our trusty Dokorder 7140 4 track reel-to-reel and Teac Model 3 mixer.

-Greg Lindstrom, linernotes

We definitely would have liked to put “Last
Laugh” and “Hype Performance” on the album [Frost and Fire], but we basically just ran
out of money to pay for recording time. Remember, we paid for
everything on “Frost And Fire” ourselves, from the recording time to
the shrinkwrap.

(Sept 79) This one you've only heard live before. Tim does his best Mae West impression in the slow middle part.

-Greg Lindstrom, linernotes

The live version was previously released as a bonustrack for the remastered version of King of the Dead.

We definitely would have liked to put “Last
Laugh” and “Hype Performance” on the album [Frost and Fire], but we basically just ran
out of money to pay for recording time. Remember, we paid for
everything on “Frost And Fire” ourselves, from the recording time to
the shrinkwrap.

(Dec 79) I heard an Offspring song the other day on the radio that started off with exactly the same drum beat and bass. Incredible coincidence? Not a whole lot different from the F & F version, but it's got a great solo from Jerry, and I like Tim's rising shriek at the end.

(Sept 80) Again, not a lot different from the F & F version, but it's got another great solo from Jerry. Sorry about the pops, that's from switching in the vocals on the lead guitar track. The joys of trying to squeeze everything in on 4 tracks ... The LA Times music critic reported that Pearl Jam's 'Alive' was a rip off of this song!

(Aug 80) I think I recorded this the day after I got my Korg PolySix. Imagine, a synthesizer that could play more than one note at a time! By the way, I stole the 'Lankhmar' titles from the late Fritz Leiber's 'Fafhrd And The Grey Mouser' series. If you like heroic fantasy, check them out.

-Greg Lindstrom, linernotes

The
picture is the first book in the series, "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser",
where the Lankmahr title is taken from.

This version appeared on Brian Slagel's first Metal Blade album 'Metal Massacre One'. We have pumped up the bass here, I think it was the best song on the album. Our song was faster than Metallica's, go figure!

This is a different, but way better version of our remake of Arthur Browns great song, than the version which appeared on 'Paradise Lost'. We had two managers who ripped us off and never paid for this recording. It was donated by Jeff at Goldmine Studios. If we have not have had a producer on our fourth album, they all would have sounded this good!

This is from the same session as above. Once again this song stands head and shoulders above the version on 'Paradise Lost', as we had no artistic control on that album at all. The intro, ending and gnarly panned guitars were my idea!

These next five songs were off our practice tapes for 'Paradise Lost'. The only time we ever had a lawyer was on this album and we unknowingly signed away the rights to the album forever to Restless Records! For some reason they will not release it or license it so this may be the closest many will get to hear it!

-Robert Garven, linernotes

Update: The album was finally officially re-released by Noble Rot in 2007.

These tracks were done on a Teac 3340 4-track deck and originally had better lead and background vocals, which are missing now. To the best of my recollection we erased the vocals and recorded only Tim's leads for practice for this album that could have been our best if we had not been screwed on the whole thing. I thought I had thrown them away when the band broke up in despair, they are presented here for your enjoyment. I know this is on this disc twice but I did not want to break up the original trio. This is the mighty Flint playing Bass and Jimmy playing the amazing leads.

There is one part on this song where we play two bars of some heavy chugging that was cut from the original album as the producer would not let any of the band members be present when the album was being recorded. This stupidity caused the removal of the best 20 seconds on the original song. It is 4 minutes 11 seconds into the song. Here it is, now in its complete and unabridged form!

These are nowhere near the sound quality of 'Fire' above or even 'Paradise Lost', and you have to sing along by yourselves on the choruses but it at least has the feeling undiluted by bad production. (Can you tell I am still pissed how our 4th album came out!?) We made a video of this song.

The last selection that was on our 4th album. Jimmy did some amazing guitar work on all of these. Remember we did not have any of the fancy digital or even mini studio system around today. If we would have these would have been killer!

Atom Smasher (live) was previously released on the Live EP (1996). I'm not sure whether this is the same version.

Four of these next tracks were from a show at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, California (04-05-85) about 30 minutes from Ventura where we all lived. We opened up for the Japanese band Loudness. These were never meant to be reproduced, and were made straight off the board onto cassette. I think they came out great. Jerry is gone now, but he was one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived. Long Live Jerry Fogle!

This was from my favorite album of all time 'King of the Dead'. Once again Jerry's guitar is simply amazing. There is also my trademark gong and Flint's heavy flanged bass and Tim's unequaled screeching! We used to hop around a lot on stage and at one point Jerry's guitar came out. This was also before wireless connections!!!

This was previously released as bonustrack for the remastered edition of Frost and Fire.

Even though we played many shows over the years, we never were able to go to Europe and play for our most loyal fans. To this day it is my saddest regret! Remember that these probably were not our best performances, but the only ones to survive.

This is a cover of Johnny Rivers' song. The original song is available on any Johnny Rivers-collection. It is the soundtrack to Secret Agent a.k.a. Danger Man.

MAN We only played a few cover tunes in our entire career, this was one of our early ones. Written by Johnny Rivers (!), it was the theme song for a show starring Patrick McGoohan. Greg makes good use of the whammy bar during the solo.

Ferrari 308 QV (Quattrovalvole) is a V6/V8 1981-84 model of the car. This track is basically the sound of a Ferrariengine, Rob and Greg's hymn to their favourite car. It is by far not their only reference to Ferrari-cars. The picture is the engine of Rob's own Ferrarri.

Greg and I met in 1971 and we instantly hit it off as we both had a love for sports cars,
especially Ferrari's! This is a friend's car (Gary Reed) on a dyno. What other engine can
compare to a Ferrari? The answer is none!!!!!

-Robert Garven, linernotes

As you might already know I am not only a huge Ferrari fan I follow F1 and am a loyal Tifosi!! One of the first times Greg Lindstrom and I got together we went to the LA auto show to see the new Ferrari's. We were very young about 12 or 13. The fire of the red religion burns in me. I think there is a definite relationship between the screaming of the engine, the sucking of the carburetors and the throbbing and pulsing of True Metal!!!!! I was hoping that if the band was successful I could have a huge stable of them, however I had to quit the band and get a regular job to afford even one! I have a 1975 Dino 308 gt4. If you listen real close, you can hear me racing in the hills above Ventura, winding through the gears, blasting metal as I downshift into the next corner!!! I am very sorry Eddie lost, but I know Michael will carry the torch of the faithful next year........ My life was full of two passions, now that my passion for music has been ripped from my breast... I have immersed myself in the red blood of Ferrari!!!!

-Robert Garven, That's Metal 1/99

I am and have been an enormous fan of Ferrari since the age of 11! Racing and cars were an inspiration and theme for several of our songs over the years. I originally started talking to Greg, as he and I were fellow auto enthusiasts at a young age. I was really hoping that if the band got big one of my dreams was buy many Ferrari’s as I feel that they are not only cars but also works of art. I now consider myself very lucky to have just one red 1975 Dino 308 gt4. I am not wealthy yet I managed to get married (no kids) and buy a small house and own a classic Ferrari. (Not bad for a failed rock musician!) I do all the work on it myself as a hobby and this summer I performed a major engine service. There are many things I do not like about our country, but for some reason the car is king here and there are many affordable Ferrari’s! Where I live in Southern California it hardly rains or gets cold so it is the perfect environment to own and drive a car as this. Although we do not have the Autobahn, unfortunately! I do not have much money but I do have my priorities!

-Robert Garven, Metal Heart 12/2000 interview

Well don't get me started! I was attracted to Ferrari as a child, being
born on the same day that Dino Ferrari died in Italy 50 years ago. I
remember the first time I saw a Ferrari in San Francisco, I was around
11 at the time. I remember getting down on my hands and knees in front
of it looking at the prancing horse badge and thinking that this is the
most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Many Ferraristi have similar
stories. It is funny as we have some popularity in Italy and I have a
love for all things Italian. I even have a Roman soldiers outfit that I
wear around sometimes! My main love is the sound of the engines. The
heart of every Ferrari is the engine and unless you have been in a 12
cylinder Ferrari at 8000 rpm redline there is no way to explain the
mechanical symphony produced. My Dino is only an 8 cylinder but it has
4 double throat Weber carburetors and it has its own scream which I an
enamored with. At night flames shoot out of the exhaust pipes! Actually
many rocker and drummers have a love for the cars, as they are the
pinnacle of automotive achievement! Period!

-Robert Garven, Diabolical Conquest interview

Yes, even though the band was not a commercial success I am most proud that we have many fans still in Italy. I am an original tifoso, starting at age 11 to worship the red religion (Ferrari). I love everything Italian and an honored that there are some people in Italy which like the music we wrote. If you look at an original vinyl copy of our first record “Frost & Fire” the words “for Enzo” are scratched into every record. That about sums up my feelings.

-Robert Garven, Guardians of Fate 3/02

There have been many marques in automobile's history, but Ferrari
stands alone above all as pinnacle of achievement, a testament to
Italian artistry, craftsmanship and engineering. Every other car is
well just another car, but every Ferrari has 5000 race victories behind
it. You can ride "The Black Machine", however I prefer the red one! :-P

The heart of every Ferrari is its engine, and the sound of a Ferrari engine at full song is like a mechanical symphony!